Holiday violence toll includes boys, 5 and 7: 'It's just senseless'

With the long Fourth of July weekend not even half over, the toll from violence in Chicago stood at 9 dead and at least 36 wounded today, including two little boys, 5 and 7, seriously hurt while at parks with their families.

The victims since Wednesday afternoon also include a 14-year-old boy shot on the West Side, a 16-year-old boy wounded on the South Side and a cabbie shot in the stomach by a robber on the South Side.

The youngest victim so far is 5-year-old Jaden Donald, who was shot in the abdomen and right leg while with his family at a party in Cooper Park on the Far South Side shortly after midnight.

His mother, Jasmine Donald, stood outside Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn this morning in a gown, blood on her dress and shoes. She said she hadn't been at the park long when a young man started shooting.

"Not 15 minutes," she said.

Donald lifted her right hand and held it out, then swept it from left to right as she described how a young man shot into the crowd. "Everybody ran. The kids hit the ground. My son tried to run to me."

She noticed he was bleeding and lifted his shirt and saw a gaping wound.

Jaden underwent surgery but "he's not breathing on his own. A machine is breathing for him," she told reporters outside the hospital about 7:30 a.m. The boy lost three organs, she said.

"This senseless shooting needs to stop," she said, "It's just senseless. This makes me want to go back in the house with my kids and never go out. Why would you do something like this? Why? All these kids and innocent people out here, why?"

Two others also were wounded in the park. Police said neither of the men, 34 and 28, has documented gang affiliations.

Someone drove all three to Metro South Medical Center in Blue Island and the boy was transferred to Christ, police said.

No one was in custody and police did not have a description of the shooter.

On Thursday night, a 7-year-old boy was hit in the neck by a stray bullet at Cole Park in the 300 block of East 85th Street, police said. He was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center, according to fire officials.

The boy was shot in the neck behind the ear, apparently hit by a stray bullet from at least one gunman who was aiming at rival gang members, police said.

Cole Park, at 85th Street and King Drive, is across the street from where Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham IV was shot and killed in 2010 in front of his parents' home.

In other shootings across the city:

• Four people, including a 14-year-old boy, were wounded about 12:30 a.m. Friday on Cottage Grove between 60th and 61st streets in the West Woodlawn neighborhood.

The 14-year-old was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, about two blocks away. A 54-year-old woman with a leg wound and a 37-year-old man with a wound to the right forearm were taken to the University of Chicago Hospital. A 35-year-old woman was stable at Northwestern Memorial Hospital with a leg wound.

• A 26-year-old man was shot to death in Rogers Park about 5:30 a.m. Friday. Police found him bleeding from gunshot wounds in the 7400 block of North Paulina Street and he was pronounced dead there. He was identified as Elliot Frazier of the 7400 block of North Winchester Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

• A man was critically wounded Friday afternoon in a shooting on the West Side in the city's Lawndale neighborhood. The shooting happened about 12:30 p.m. on the 1400 block of South Keeler Avenue, said Police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan. A man described as in his 20s was wounded and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, Sullivan said.

• A 28-year-old man drove himself to St. Bernard Hospital and Healthcare Center after suffering three wounds – two to his abdomen and one to his chest. He was transferred to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said. He was shot in the 5900 block of South Peoria Avenue about 3:30 a.m. Friday.

• Friends of a man shot in the buttocks dropped him off at Saint Bernard Hospital and Healthcare Center about 3:30 a.m. Friday, but police said the 21-year-old was not cooperating with police and had left the hospital. He was shot in the 6500 block of South Parnell Avenue, police said.

• A cab driver was shot outside a taxi association on the South Side about 2:30 a.m. Friday. The shooter tried to rob the cabbie in the 7700 block of South Exchange Avenue and shot him in the stomach. The 56-year-old man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition, police said.

• About 2:15 a.m. Friday, a 17-year-old boy was shot in the abdomen near 103rd Street and Michigan Avenue in the Roseland neighborhood. He was driven to Little Company of Mary Hospital and transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center in serious condition.